Temitope
Temitope Akinola
Nigeria Airtel half year results have shown that the company has continued to grow profitably, Bharti Airtel Africa confirms.
According to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel Africa, Christian de Faria, “In the first quarter, Airtel Africa has set the pace for the year, with customer base growing by 13.4 percent to 78.3 million. Customer churn has been reduced from 7.0 percent to 5.4 percent, as a result of customer lifecycle management programmes. Minutes grew by 16.0 per cent, while data volumes have more than doubled. The data customer penetration at 16.6 percent reflects the untapped potential in the internet space. I am particularly delighted to report that 7.0 million Airtel Money customers are transacting more than $ 1 billion of money every month. We are also satisfied with continued profitable growth in Nigeria”
It was also revealed in the quarterly report that Orange, a French telecommunications operator is interested in acquiring Airtel operations in Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Chad. According to Bharti Airtel, the transaction is one that is about maximising shareholder value by handing over the business to an operator who is obviously committed to taking the agenda in those countries forward.
On the other hand, there are insinuations that Airtel would be cutting down its workforce. This was confirmed in the quarterly revenue report which says that the restructuring would allow Airtel to establish a sharper focus on the remaining countries, further reduce the debt on its balance sheet and move faster towards building a profitable company.
According to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel Africa, Christian de Faria, “In the first quarter, Airtel Africa has set the pace for the year, with customer base growing by 13.4 percent to 78.3 million. Customer churn has been reduced from 7.0 percent to 5.4 percent, as a result of customer lifecycle management programmes. Minutes grew by 16.0 per cent, while data volumes have more than doubled. The data customer penetration at 16.6 percent reflects the untapped potential in the internet space. I am particularly delighted to report that 7.0 million Airtel Money customers are transacting more than $ 1 billion of money every month. We are also satisfied with continued profitable growth in Nigeria”
It was also revealed in the quarterly report that Orange, a French telecommunications operator is interested in acquiring Airtel operations in Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Chad. According to Bharti Airtel, the transaction is one that is about maximising shareholder value by handing over the business to an operator who is obviously committed to taking the agenda in those countries forward.
On the other hand, there are insinuations that Airtel would be cutting down its workforce. This was confirmed in the quarterly revenue report which says that the restructuring would allow Airtel to establish a sharper focus on the remaining countries, further reduce the debt on its balance sheet and move faster towards building a profitable company.
